Hitchon backs his champs to the hilt

Ramsbottom Cup winning Padiham skipper Kevin Hitchon doesn’t feel it necessary to issue a rallying cry to his players in their battle for survival.

The club, promoted to the top tier in the Ribblesdale Cricket League last season, face a fight to retain their status at that level after Barnoldswick plugged the gap.

Padiham are just 16 points clear with six fixtures remaining but Hitchon is confident that his squad have got more than enough in their locker to stave off the drop.

Padiham showed what they were capable of when overpowering Settle in Sunday’s final but it’s the knowledge of how hard the club had to work to get themselves back in to this position that Hitchon feels will drive them on.

Ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Ribblesdale Wanderers at the Arbories, the captain said: “The cup final has taken our focus off the league for a couple of weeks. I think a few have been concentrating on the cup too much.

“Hopefully this will give the lads the confidence to kick on now until the end of the season so we can keep our status.

“We worked incredibly hard to get here. We were in the bottom tier for four years and went close to getting promoted on a couple of occasions. We don’t want to give all that up at the first time of asking.

“We deserve to be where we are with the players that we’ve got. I’m definitely backing the squad to get this over the line. I’ve got confidence in them because they’re a bunch of talented lads.

“I couldn’t ask for more if we add survival to our cup final win. It’s more than anybody could have expected at the beginning of the season.”